


Dog Days

by VigilantShadow



Category: The Secret World
Genre: Everyone Is Happy Here No Eldritch Abominations Allowed, Gen, No Bees AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 09:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13210404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VigilantShadow/pseuds/VigilantShadow
Summary: Alessa Cirillo sets up her office at her new job. She runs into the volunteer who walks all the dogs in long term care. This is just fluff, set in a universe where at least right now everything is fine because all of our characters suffer enough in canon. Written for the Apiary winter art contest.





	Dog Days

**Author's Note:**

> Inanna: Reveals her character would have been a vet if she didn't get magic.  
> Me: Say no more.

Alessa’s uncle flipped on the light switch with his one free hand, his other occupied with the cardboard box of personal effects he had helped her carry from the car. Alessa peered over his shoulder at the room in front of him. It was mostly undecorated, save for two chairs in one corner and a diagram of how to see if one’s dog was overweight hanging on the opposite wall. She grinned, elbowing by him to set her own box on the counter next to the sink. She’d been in this office countless times during school, helping her uncle with persnickety cats and scared birds, and during college she had often dreamed about this day. The day that she stopped being a volunteer and became Dr. Cirillo. She started to step in, but he put out a hand to stop her.

“This is the room you’ll be working in. We can set up in her later, but there’s something we’ve gotta do first.”

“Why later?” Alessa asked, “we’re here now.”

“Well,” her uncle stretched out the syllable, “I thought you might like to see your office.”

“A real office?” She asked. Then, because it would be embarrassing to start crying on her first day, she smiled to lighten the mood, “you’re spoiling me!”

“Just don’t tell any of the others, they might accuse me of nepotism.”

The joke didn’t sting like Alessa figured it would most people. She knew very well that their clinic had few enough people everyone actually on the payroll got their own space. And besides, the other vets knew her too well to think she’d used her familial relations with the owner of the clinic to get this job. They’d all been there when she spent her high school years volunteering, and she’d had enough sleepless nights dealing with colicky puppies for them to know she was serious.

So she let her uncle lead her down the hall, to the office that used to be Dr. Brunner’s until he had retired that summer to go live near his sons. She supposed it made sense that it would be hers, now. Given that she’d just barely processed she was actually a vet and not a student anymore, she thought she could be excused. It was even more sparsely decorated than her exam room had been, though Alessa thought she saw a card sitting on the small desk in front of her new computer. She put her box down beside the desk, reaching for the wooden frame that sat at the top of it. There was already a nail waiting for it in the wall, and as she hung her diploma it finally felt real.

Her uncle smiled at her, and seemed about to say something that was probably incredibly sappy, but they were interrupted by the sound of the bell at the front door opening with a jangle and a cacophony of barks.

“Oh, that’s probably Mitchell,” her uncle said. Alessa didn’t recognize the name, which was surprising. Her uncle led her back out into the hallway, where a dozen or so dogs were all wagging their tails furiously and nuzzling a man who could only be the aforementioned Mitchell.

Alessa blinked. She was used to looking at people and categorizing them easily, but this man was a confusing mess of social cues. He was tall and broad shouldered, and underneath his sweater she could see a not unnoticeable amount of muscle. His hair was the same blue as a city recycling bin, slicked up like one of the punks her aunt warned her about in high school, and she thought she saw two or three piercing holes in his ears. But his sweater was also a pastel blue and pink argyle pattern, and he was wearing it over bright yellow, tight pants and a pair of key lime green sneakers. One of his shoes, she saw, was untied, the laces dragging dangerously on the ground. Was he trying to be intimidating, or six-foot-six of teddy bear?

“Mitchell, come meet my niece,” her uncle called out. The man smiled broadly, and Alessa

“Oh, hi Dr. Cirillo. Hi...other Dr. Cirillo?”

               “Yes,” she said. One of the dogs, a sturdy looking pit with a missing eye, barreled into Mitchell’s leg. He took a step back, on the leg with the untied shoe, and a moment later he was on the ground. The dogs quickly took advantage of the opportunity and swarmed him, and soon he had disappeared in a pile of fur. Her uncle shook his head, chuckling as if this didn’t surprise him at all, and moved to help Mitchell dig himself out of his fluffy grave. Alessa waded in after him, and though the dogs were loath to stop licking the tall man, soon he had managed to get himself up again. He held out a hand for her to shake, his smile unbroken by the fall. This meant that he was holding all twelve of the leashes in the other hand, and for a moment Alessa worried one of the dogs would break free, but they all seemed content to lean against him and pant happily. Somehow, despite all the attention, his outfit had come out of the whole ordeal without any hair on it.

“Sorry about that, I’m not very coordinated,” he said. Alessa shook his hand, noticing that his grip was gentler than expected, and smiled back, “I’m Owen Mitchell.”

“He walks the dogs that we keep in extended care,” her uncle added.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Alessa. Or other Dr. Cirillo, if you’d prefer.” It was strange, having someone whose first instinct was to call her by her title unironically. She’d seen the other staff since coming back, and though they had referred to her formally it had felt unnatural, like they were testing out a novelty.

He laughed.

“Alright, Other Dr. Cirillo. So, you’re the new vet that the boss was talking about?”

“Mhm.”

“Alessa volunteered here in high school, and when Dr. Brunner retired a few months before her graduation it was only natural for me to take on someone who’d already proven herself.”

“Makes sense,” Owen said, resting his free hand on a labrador’s head, “anyway, I should get these guys back to their rooms, they’re probably hungry.”

He raised his hand in farewell and sauntered off down the hallway, the dogs following him happily. He opened the door at the end, which she knew led to the long-term boarding, and ushered the dogs through, letting it close behind him with a solid thud.

“He’s new,” Alessa mused as she and her uncle went back to her office. Her uncle nodded, leaning against the wall as Alessa busied herself arranging her few personal items on her desk. The card she had seen earlier was scooped up and she glanced at it, laughing softly at the kitten in a party hat on the front.

“Moved in from the city this year. Teaches theatre down at the high school, I’m pretty sure. He comes in every day to walk the dogs.”

“How does he have energy for all that?” Alessa had TA’d a few classes to help pay for med school, and balancing those and her residency had been near impossible. She couldn’t imagine being a full time teacher was any less exhausting.

“I’m not sure the man believes in sleep, honestly,” her uncle said. “He’s more reliable than any of our old volunteers were, though, and all the dogs calm down around him like he’s some sort of Disney princess, so I won’t argue.”

If the dogs liked him, then he must be alright, she thought. She couldn’t imagine someone with such a sunny smile being _not_ alright, anyway, but she trusted animals’ judges of character more than her own.

A few minutes later, Owen popped his head back in, only one leash still in his hand.

“Alright, they’re all settled. Falstaff and I are headed out, unless you need anything else?”

“I think we’re alright,” her uncle said, moving to pet the big-eyed whippet on the other end of Owen’s leash, “you two have a nice afternoon.”

“You too, Doctors Cirillo. See you tomorrow!” His smile somehow got even wider as he waved to them and then he was gone, the door jingling shut behind him.

“Well, I think that’s everything,” her uncle said, surveying the room. “Do you want to go get lunch?”

“Do we have time for that?” She had hoped to get in at least one appointment before leaving the building.

“Sundays are slow, there’s no one scheduled until three. No need to starve ourselves till then. Come on, I’ll buy!”

“Well, in _that_ case,” she said, “we’re getting burgers.”

“Anything for my newest doctor,” he said, catching her as she walked by him and pulling her into a side hug.

Alessa turned over her shoulder, taking one last look at her new office. It was going to be a good year, she could feel it.

              

 


End file.
